sewing, history, and style

Portfolio: Shell’s Wedding Dress

The Idea and Inspiration:

Shell and I collaborated to design her wedding dress, taking inspiration Shell’s love of Lord of the Rings and the wedding site (Kaitoke Regional Park, where Rivendell was filmed for LotR), some elements of modern wedding dresses that we liked, the NZ native birds theme of the wedding, and my background as a historical seamstress.

All of these came together in a 21st century wedding dress for an elf queen that might have been designed by early 20th-century designer Elizabeth Hawes, in subtle bird colours, all using historical construction methods.